Flight Rising: In-Depth Review and Pseudo-Guide

Approved WriterVPL Member

Flight RisingNOTE: If you see any typos or grammar errors, please tell me. (I'm not the best at catching them.) I'll be going over this later, as I've been at it for a while and fixing any errors. If you can help me out with it I'd be very greatful. Let me know what you think about my Review and Pseudo-Guide! Thanks!

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Overview

Flight Rising is a new website, having just opened to the public on June 8, 2013. Before this they hosted a WILDLY successful kickstarter that vastly exceeded their goals in terms of income. The site itself is a pet sim with different species of dragons being incorporated as the pets. It offers a very large selection of features for its age and boasts the members to back it. At the time of starting this review they have approximately 1,976 users online. This website has literally exploded overnight, and it isn't hard to see why.

The Front Page

The layout is very impressive. It is very professional and a user can adjust very quickly to it. When logged in the right corner is replaced by your username and a small dropdown allowing you to perform a few actions. The bottom right shows some of the most recent threads on the forums and the left side is entirely taken up by navigation system, which remains consistent throughout the site. The theme is a red and white combo that is easy on the eyes.

As you most likely spotted, the left bottom corner has an ad. This is the only location ads appear on the site, and they can be found on every page. The ad itself is not obtrusive and I definitely say it should NOT deter anyone away from the site. It's easy to ignore, I'm barely aware it's there.

[HR][/HR]The Layout

You can actually view most of the site without being logged in, very nice as it allows you to preview the site before you join.

This is a shot of where you can find your dragons. As I stated before, the layout remains consistent and you can learn it very quickly. One of the biggest flaws I see with the layout is that in the Shop section, the names are big misnomers. The Marketplace is actually the site shop where you can buy things from clothing for your dragons to genes and other related merchandise. The gem shop (Gems are the paid currency for this site.) can be accessed from the same page by clicking a small button near the directory buttons. That is definitely a plus as it doesn't feel like it's being forced on you. It's easy to find if you want it, but not in your face.

The misnomers come in when you go below this. The Auction House is not actually an auction. Users can sell their items and dragons here, but at a flat rate. The site does not as of now provide user shops, but this is perhaps a better alternative. Items can be sold individually here or as package deals, but whatever the seller set the price as is what you pay.

The Trading Post is not actually a place to trade items. It is instead a small area for a few things that are similar to (or in one case is) dailies can be found. You must use the forums to trade items with other users.

The Crossroads is actually a fairly good name for this area, as you use this to trade dragons with other users or conduct private sales.

Custom Skins is the location where you may purchase items to create your own skins (See features.) and explains the rules associated with them.

The last link leads to a shop where items collected while gathering (See features) for certain events can be traded in for exclusive items.

[HR][/HR]

Pets

DRAGONS

There are several different species of dragons. These are Fae, Guardian, Tundra, Spiral, Ridgeback, Mirror, Pearlcatcher, Imperial, Snapper, and Wildclaw. Each one is very different and unique, featuring different poses for males and females and different images for hatchlings. (Baby dragons.) Some of the dragons are rarer than others. The common species can be seen below.

The site boasts simple color mechanics be allowing you three different colors categories and a large range of colors available, but no color wheel. You have Primaries, Secondaries, and Tertiaries. (See any of the profiles of the dragons above.) Primaries are the colors that make up the main body of a dragon, secondaries are the wings, and tertiaries don't show up unless you add genes.

When you first start playing, you get to customize one dragon to be one of your progenitors. That basically means the dragons that start your account. You can't sell them or give them away. This first dragon is the only one you get to customize (Color wise) in the whole game, you must breed/buy/trade for desired colors.

Genes dictate the texture of a dragon's colors. It's a very interesting concept. The default gene is Basic, which is where a dragon has typical shading and coloring as seen above. Different genes affect different species slightly differently and they are specific to a type of color. (There are Primary Genes, Secondary Genes, and Tertiary.) Tertiaries show up when you add a tertiary gene and rest on top of Primaries and Secondaries.

Example of the Primary Gene Shimmer:

Dragon with the same Primary color, but basic:

(This is a Wildclaw.)

As you can see, they add an interesting twist to dragons.

The site also includes breeding these dragons. When two dragons breed, a color between them on the preselected color wheel is chosen at random. So if there are ten colors between them on the wheel, you will either get one of those ten colors or they may possess the same color as one of the parents. Eye color is determined by what kind of nest the dragon was born in. (See Features - Flight)

The breeding cooldown is very, very, very long. The common species all have a cooldown of 15 days and rare species are up in the 25 area. Eggs must be incubated every day for five days or you might risk losing some eggs. (I myself lost 2 out of 3 eggs in a clutch in one day by forgetting to incubate...) However, once the eggs have reached the point they may hatch, they can be left in their eggs indefinitely. (This was done in case you had to expand your lair. You have to pay for extra slots, but you do start off with a few.)

The most common clutch of eggs possesses two eggs but can possess between one and five. Five clutch eggs are only possible between two dragons of different species.

The Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary colors are each decided individually from the parents' colors.

Your dragons can also be dressed up in different types of clothes and accessories such as hoods, hats, and other such items.

Your dragon only has six slots for apparal unless you pay fifty gems to unlock more, but six is probably enough for most people. The apparal all has very nice art and it's all very consistent.

You also should feed your dragons. You can get food from gathering (See below.), buying it at the auction house, and sometimes staff give it out in PMs. You can't use the Coliseum if you don't feed your dragons.

[HR][/HR]

Features

Flight Rising has SEVERAL different features, especially considering how young it is.

The Coliseum is an arena-type deal where your dragons can fight monsters in different areas with different levels. PvP is in the works. Your dragons cannot fight until they are adults and each one has a type dependant on their Flight (See Flights below.) Each species of dragon has a tendency towards either magic or physical attacks. Magic attacks are performed with "Breath" and has a little meter under your health bar.

Dragons meditate and lose a turn to generate so much breath and once they possess enough, they can perform a magic attack. Some species do not start out with a magic attack, but Fae is the only species I keep and they do.

As you can see, I have no breath at this moment. Deme, the dark green Fae, is the dragon whose move I'm deciding. When I decide on a move it will show a short animation and calculate results. (If you attack it'll deplete their health.)

The little circle symbol above the moth's head indicates it is a neutral monster, meaning it has no particular weakness or strength against different types.

Dragons also have stats. You get to allocate skill points when a dragon levels up to different skills that raise things such as attack, magic attack effectiveness, defense, and rate of attack. You can also add more abilities with little tiles to allow your dragon more actions in the Colliseum. Unfortunately, unlike with skill points, you can't change ability/skill boost tiles. So make sure what you put in is what you really want.

A real downside to the Coliseum is that is times out a lot and fails to follow through with actions. It also lags a lot for me. The Coliseum itself is very gorgeous to watch but if your connection is too slow, you may not even be able to use it, as I've seen many people say. (If anybody who plays FR who still can't use the Colliseum would contact me and give a statement that I can use as a quote I'd be greatful! I'm SplitCheshireCat over there and number 2951.)

I myself almost never use the Colliseum because it lags badly for me and I just don't have the patience. I hope that one day FR Staff will offer an optional text version, which would definitely cause me to play it because if you can efficiently use the Coliseum, it would really be fun.

The games on the site are very few right now. There are four, one of which is in beta and doesn't give any Treasure just now. (Treasure = Game Currency). There is a matching game where you flip over tablets and, of course, match them up for Treasure. You get more Treasure for doing it quickly. There is a time limit on it, so make sure to work quickly.

There is also a puzzle game, which is pretty self explanatory. You also get Treasure for this one, but there is not time limit.

It definitely looks like the staff want to add more games. The staff themselves work like crazy people. It's awesome.

Another interesting aspect of the game is the ability to gather items. Each day you get 10 turns, 15 if you keep your dragons well fed and another extra if your Flight is dominant. (See Flight.)

When you gather you can get a lot of miscellaneous items and sometimes find unhatched eggs, which allows you to get more dragons. Different areas can give a few different items.

Skins are another layer to the customization part of the game. You can buy sets that allow you to upload skins, which much follow certain rules. They basically cover your dragon but can't be passed on through breeding. You can also buy these skins from other players. Downside is that they cost a butt ton and they can only be used on one specific species and gender, so you end up paying a lot for it if you want a skin that fits on a lot of dragons and genders.

Selling items can be done two ways. One being through the Auction House, which has no quickstock method, and the other is to sell them from your Hoard (Inventory). You get more from the Auction House if you can sell it most of the time. You can also give them to a NPC in the Trading Post.

There are a few things that are kinda like dailies. One dragoness NPC will buy random things to you for her hoard, another will give you one free item a day from the dragoness's hoard behind her back, and another will trade bulk items for something else. It seems to be utterly random and it changes a lot a day. (Every hour?)

Events so far are weeklong celebration type things every month celebrating a Flight. In that Flight's particular area in Gathering you can find a special currency to get special items. There really isn't much else going on with this just now, but it's a cool little lore kind of thing.

Flights are also a cool part of FR. You get to pick your Flight at the start and have to stick with it, so pick wisely. Each Flight has a forum visible only to fellow Flight members. It seems like most/all Flights are pretty close-knit. At least Wind is, my Flight. We seem to get along really well there. (PSSTTT... WIND FLIGHT IT BEST FLIGHT!)

Another thing along with Flights is Exalting. It falls right along together. Exalting is sending a dragon you own to serve your Flight Deity. (Basically the big boss of the Flight. This is a NPC.) You get a bit of Treasure and help in the Flight Dominance. You get discounts from site stores, an extra gathering turn, and some other thing I can't recall right now if your Flight is dominant. It's a way of encouraging Exalting, which basically removes dragons from circulation. In my opinion, at this time, Exalting really is only beneficial if you want the bragging rights or you just can't sell a dragon and want to get rid of it. You can almost always sell a dragon for more than it gives you from exalting.

The Forums. I have a love-hate relationship with these. The community is nice and helpful, but they are unorganized for the most part. (EDIT ON 7/20/13 - Community is NOT nice. NOT NICE.) (Will be touched on further in my recap and review portion.)

The Review

FR is a great site. It's fun and you don't have to spend an eternity online to get ahead as you can eventually earn what you need to get what you want by selling dragons. For those of you with almost no time, FR is a good choice. It may take more time but it's doable.

So said, the dragon economy is in turmoil. Most likely because the supply and demand is skewed. Rare dragons are difficult to get and sell for a lot, plus they take four eternities to cool down and breed again. It's easier to use a species change scroll to create one that to actually buy one. Imperials are unobtainable as a beginner unless you purchase gems. (Unless you haul tail on games every day, and it's still sky-high expensive.) The only Imperial scrolls were given out to Kickstarters and they evidently will not be obtainable again, so you have to buy them or the scrolls off other users.

(However, the economy is interesting, something you guys who like to play the economy could appreciate. There's full potential to turn a quick profit if you're clever about it.)

Common species are what you start out with and they go at very cheap prices, too low. That's because there are so many of them and there are so few of the other species.

Even said, the site is incredibly fun in and of itself and money does seem to flow in and out pretty well. Most people seem to sell their dragons in a pretty good timeframe.

The forums... heaven help. The community is great, but using the forums to sell anything or make any kinds of suggestions is hard. There are absolutely no subforums and no rules on bumping. You have to keep a hard eye on your sales threads to keep them above water, as in posting every 30 seconds in sales to keep from slipping off the first page. (EDIT ON 7/20/13 - COMMUNITY IS NOT NICE. NOT NICE. Do not state your opinion if it differs from the norm. YOU WILL BE HARRASSED!!!)

Suggestions, if spotted by staff and applicable, are implemented rapidly... but it's hard to keep your thread on the top of the pile and there are about fifty threads about the same thing with only slightly different parts to them. It could use a lot more regulation.
(EDIT 7/20/13 - A few days ago Thrage (Admin) stepped down because comments that were negative towards transexual people were discovered. There are no Mods.)

There also just aren't a lot of different discussion/talking related forums, but that might be intended to keep the peace as the site is huge. I could see it getting out of hand.

Staff themselves are awesome. They're SUPER professional (but still soooo nice) and respond rapidly to issues. The site is improving at a breakneck pace and more items and other such stuff is added every day it seems. The art is always great to go along too. They are leaps and bounds ahead of Neopets in relation to that, despite the fact that they aren't as visible as other staff on sites like Aywas.

It's easy to see that they are listening and responsive. 10/10 on staff.

There seem to be a fair few issues with crashing on the games but they are very playable. These are an annoyance but the games are more functional than is typical of a petsite, much less one so young. They may fail sometimes, but the quality can't be beat.

It's hard not to compare FR to Neopets. FR is definitely... a friendly baby Neo. It's clean-cut site and looks fantastic. When I make a comparison between them, it's as if they took all the great things about Neo and deleted the bad ones. The site is not yet as... indepth, but I feel strongly that one day it will be. I think it's the new and improved Neopets really.

The Coliseum is beautiful. (All the art is really.) I love the complexity and setup as I love strategy games... but I have a hard time with it. For a lot of people, it makes the site, but I love the other parts more.

It's less common to see a dragon site that allows you to care for the dragons, much less dress them up. It's a cool system and the apparal is spot on and redrawn for each species/gender.

Over all, I love the site. It's a must-try. If you like Neo, Aywas, FF, Khimeros, or any other similar site you'll more than likely like FR.

Updated 8/16/13

While the guide applies well to the site, it deserves a different review at this point in time. The site is laggy, down all the time, has a messed up economy, the users run the site and throw tantrums as they see fit it seems, and most of the best features are constantly down.

You have trouble selling your dragons and the cost of things in the shops are ridiculously high. A profit is difficult to turn and there is a major gap in the value of rare dragons and common dragons... so much that you can spend four eternities saving up for a rare and coveted breed and struggle to sell your commons.

The site, is of this moment, worth a try... but I'm not sure how long it will last. It showed great promise but is struggling heavily in all it does it seems. I've become severely disappointed in the site and hold little interest in it now. It needs a lot of help if it means to stay open as users will rapidly lose interest at this rate.
Art: 10/10
Features: 6/10 (Bugs. Lag.) (Updated 8/16/13)
Staff: 7/10 (Updated 8/16/13)
Forums: 6/10 (Chaotic, but nice.)
Community: 1/10 (Updated 7/20/13)

VPL SupporterInactive VPL ArtistVPL Member

Don't forget the Mirror breed in your breed list. If you want example pictures of the various breeds of dragons you're welcome to use the ones in my lair. I'm sunandshadow over there too. If I were reviewing the game one of the things I'd point out is the way the economy is complex and fluctuating in a way that's very interesting to people who like to play the market and exchange currency. In particular Crim the npc collector helps vary what items are worth by temporarily buying them for at least twice their base value.

VPL Member

thanks
i started yesterday there. It was nice to see, but at first a little bit ... chaotic x,D I didn't look in the forum and now I don't want to... I'm not that fast. But yeah the rest looks really nice, and I will follow the site and their envelopment <3

Approved WriterVPL Member

@skullheart - I wouldn't let that deter you really. The majority of the forums seem to do okay and it's only hard on the sellers. You can pretty much find whatever you want to buy.

EDIT:

^_^ Also, envelopment is to surround something and development is the progress of something. (I hope I don't seem rude. As I saw you are from Germany I thought English is probably not your first language.)

VPL Member

I agree that the forums are kind of a mess-- I feel like it's also important to note that it can be pretty hard for a newcomer to figure out what to do on the site. Good note about the staff though, I agree that they're really great!

VPL Member

I've been on FR for 15 days now and I love it. The people are nice as well as staff and the art is epic. It's the first breeder site that I have actually understood. Being new was easy. You read the popup starter information and you're good to go. Thank you for giving my new lovely home a fair rating, Split Cheshire Cat.

VPL Member

I've been a part of Flight Rising...uuh wait, I think I joined the day after it opened? Yeah, and I've been a part of it ever since. The forums itself aren't that bad (I actually like that it's active since lately all I've been joining are pretty slow-ish forums) though I do agree that the Marketplace board is messy. They recently separated these forums to make it look nicer, and yeah, it does indeed help.

As for the community, I have yet to see something really nasty, but I am intimidated by the idea that they took the drama that happened before so...angrily (because I personally do not think he deserved that treatment). I was really hoping for something like that not to happen, but it did, and now for those who were there, the darker side of the FR community came out. Still, as things have already calmed down (in a way), it's not as bad as it may seem. As long as you steer clear from saying something over the top, the community is quite nice (I wonder why there is no introduction forum for newbies though.)

Ah, and as for everything else (gameplay, art, etc) I can't wait to jump back in, really. I miss my dragons. ;A;

Administrator

I've been a part of Flight Rising...uuh wait, I think I joined the day after it opened? Yeah, and I've been a part of it ever since. The forums itself aren't that bad (I actually like that it's active since lately all I've been joining are pretty slow-ish forums) though I do agree that the Marketplace board is messy. They recently separated these forums to make it look nicer, and yeah, it does indeed help.

As for the community, I have yet to see something really nasty, but I am intimidated by the idea that they took the drama that happened before so...angrily (because I personally do not think he deserved that treatment). I was really hoping for something like that not to happen, but it did, and now for those who were there, the darker side of the FR community came out. Still, as things have already calmed down (in a way), it's not as bad as it may seem. As long as you steer clear from saying something over the top, the community is quite nice (I wonder why there is no introduction forum for newbies though.)

Ah, and as for everything else (gameplay, art, etc) I can't wait to jump back in, really. I miss my dragons. ;A;

Click to expand...

I've only interacted with the community a few times. I've replied to a few suggestions and also talked to some of my clan members. I haven't had any bad experiences with the members or anything.

Approved VPL ArtistVPL Member

The only drama I've had to deal with directly is within the Skype chats. Mostly because I have very little tolerance for the idiocy within them. The people in there-I swear. They get in such a tizzy over the economy to where it's the only thing they talk about for hours and have the audacity to call Undel out for stealing when one even stole writing themselves (I hate people who do that so naturally I went after them, still have to deal with them though but they are so far in denial about it, it's hilarious).

Idk if you saw the White/White and Obsi/Obsi post over on DramaRising and the slew of replies to it but it's so clear you can't even express an opinion about colors without being lynched (granted that was my attempt with the post BUT still proves a point).

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